Markale massacres

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Photograph from the scene, shortly after one of the massacres.
Photograph from the scene, shortly after one of the massacres.

The Markale massacres were two massacres committed by the Army of Republika Srpska[1] on civilians during the Siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian War. They occurred at the Markale (marketplace) located in the historical core of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The first happened on February 5, 1994 when 68 people were killed and 144 more were wounded. The second occurred on August 28, 1995 when a mortar shell killed 37 people and wounded another 90. This latter attack was the stated reason for NATO air strikes against the Bosnian Serb forces that would eventually lead to the Dayton Peace Accords and the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The question of whether the shells responsible for the massacres came from Bosnian government army (ARBiH) or Republika Srpska forces (Vojska Republike Srpske) positions had been the subject of a prolonged controversy and numerous conspiracy theories.[2]

Contents

[edit] First massacre

The first massacre occurred between 12:10 and 12:15 PM, when a 120 millimeter mortar shell landed in the center of the crowded marketplace.[2] Rescue workers and United Nations (UN) personnel rushed to help the numerous civilian casualties, while footage of the event soon made news reports across the world.[2] Controversy over the event started when an initial UNPROFOR report claimed that the shell was fired from Bosnian government positions. General Michael Rose, the British head of UNPROFOR, revealed in his memoirs that three days after the blast he told General Divjak, the deputy commander of ARBiH forces, that the shell had been fired from Bosnian positions.[2] However, a later and more indepth UNPROFOR report noted a calculation error in the original findings. With the error fixed, the United Nations concluded that it was impossible to determine which side had fired the shell.

[edit] Second massacre

The second massacre occurred in August of the following year at about 11:00 AM, with five shells being fired but a smaller number of casualties.[1] The secrecy of the United Nations in their investigation of the incident provoked media speculation that it was not known for certain which side had fired the mortar rounds.[1] This speculation was fueled by the Serb authorities who, as they did following the 1994 incident, denied all responsibility and accused the Bosnian government of bombarding its own people to incite international outrage and possible intervention.[3] In fact, as was revealed by a 1999 report to the United Nations General Assembly, UNPROFOR considered the evidence clear: a confidential report from shortly after the event concluded that all five rounds had been fired by the Army of Republika Srpska.[1] As soon as technical and weather conditions allowed, and the safety of UN personnel traveling through Serb territory was secured, Operation Deliberate Force commenced.[1]

David Harland, former head of UN Civil Affairs in Bosnia, admitted at the trial of General Dragomir Milošević in ICTY that he was responsible for the creation of the myth that UNPROFOR was unable to determine who had fired the mortar shells that caused the Markale 2 massacre. The myth that has survived for more than ten years, Harland said was created because of a “neutral statement” made by General Rupert Smith, the UNPROFOR commander. On the day when the second attack on Markale happened, General Smith stated “it is unclear who fired the shells, although at that time he already had the technical report of UNPROFOR intelligence section, determining beyond reasonable doubt that they were fired from VRS positions at Lukavica”. Harland’s responsibility lies in the fact that he himself advised General Smith to make “a neutral statement in order not to alarm the Serbs who would be alerted to the impending NATO air strikes against their positions had he pointed a finger at them”. That would have jeopardized the safety of UN troops in the territory under VRS control or on positions where they might have been vulnerable to retaliatory attacks by Serb forces.[4]

[edit] Trial

In January 2004, prosecutors in the trial against Stanislav Galić, a Serb general in the siege of Sarajevo, introduced into evidence a report including the testimony of ammunition expert Berko Zečević. Working with two colleagues, Zečević's investigation revealed a total of six possible locations from which the shell in the first Markale massacre could have been fired, of which five were under VRS and one under ARBiH control. The ARBiH site in question was visible to UNPROFOR observers at the time, who reported that no shell was fired from that position. Zečević further reported that certain components of the projectile could only have been produced in one of two places, both of which were under the control of the Army of Republika Srpska. The court would eventually find Galić guilty beyond reasonable doubt of all five shellings prosecutors had charged him with, including Markale. Although widely reported by the international media, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights noted that the verdict was ignored in Serbia itself.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e December, 2005. UN Report: Serbs Responsible for 1995 Sarajevo Markale Massacre. Srebrenica Genocide Blog.
  2. ^ a b c d e Fish, Jim. (February 5, 2004). Sarajevo massacre remembered. BBC.
  3. ^ Moore, Patrick. (August 29, 2005). Serbs Deny Involvement in Shelling. Omri Daily Digest.
  4. ^ The Second Markale Massacre Myth [1].

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